Forcefully Close a Program in Ubuntu

Sometimes ya gotta kill ‘em all

When a program stops responding in Windows, most users know how to stop it by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete on their keyboard, pressing the Task Manager option and closing it from there. That approach doesn’t quite transfer to Linux distributions like Ubuntu, but that doesn’t mean that you’re short of options when a program crashes.

On the contrary—there are quite a few ways to close a program on Ubuntu using CMD. If you’re comfortable using the terminal, you can use commands likekillallorxkillto force troublesome programs to close, or you can use the System Monitor app instead.

Using The System Monitor To Force Close a Running Ubuntu Process

While it’s easy enough to close an open process in Ubuntu using the terminal, beginners might not feel comfortable doing this. But an Ubuntu user doesn’t need to go near the terminal to force close a crashed program—you can use theSystem Monitorapp instead.

The System Monitor works a lot like the Task Manager does for Windows PCs. It lists all the running processes on your PC, as well as giving you real-time information on your CPU, RAM, and disk usage. It also allows you to force close any crashed software that won’t respond or close directly.

If it was successful, the process should disappear from your System Monitor processes list. If the program had an open window, this window should also close at this point.

If System Monitor didn’t successfully close the program, you’ll need to try using the terminal instead.

How To Close An Open Window Using The xkill Command

In most cases, the System Monitor software will forcefully close a program on Ubuntu. If it doesn’t, then you’ll need to switch to the terminal to close any non-responding programs.

Thankfully, there’s an easy-to-use command calledxkillthat will allow you to forcefully close any program with an open window.

This will only work for programs that are visibly not responding, including any programs with a GUI window that you can interact with.

Forcefully Closing a Program on Ubuntu Using pkill, kill Or killall Commands

Using xkill requires you to be using Ubuntu with a GUI. If you’re running a headless version of Ubuntu without a GUI installed, such as Ubuntu Server, then you’ll need to use thepkill,killorkillallcommands instead.

Thekillandpkillcommands will terminate any single process running on your PC, whilekillallwill kill all related processes. Some programs (such as Google Chrome) use multiple system processes, so usingkillorpkillmay not necessarily end them if the program stops responding.

Effective Ubuntu Maintenance

Even when running software stops responding, Ubuntu gives you the tools to stay in control. Now you know how to close a process in Ubuntu using the terminal, you can take advantage of othercool Linux terminal commandsto backup your PC, pause running commands rather than ending them, and more.

A crashing program should be a rare occurrence, but if it’s happening more often than it should, it could point to a problem with your Ubuntu installation. You’ll need to look into some of thecommon reasons for Ubuntu crashesto (hopefully) resolve your issues.

Ben Stockton is a freelance technology writer based in the United Kingdom. In a past life, Ben was a college lecturer in the UK, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, Ben has taken his teaching experience and applied it to writing tech how-to guides and tutorials, specialising in Linux, Windows, and Android. He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing.Read Ben’s Full Bio

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